Tom Ward – Page 21 – music/computers/etc

Corey Mwamba’s New Dark Art Saxophone Quartet

Last week I was very fortunate to be part of a quartet of saxophones interpreting Corey Mwamba’s MRes project “New Dark Art”, alongside Chris Williams, Colin Webster & Cath Roberts. Corey videoed the day’s workshop as part of his study, and you can watch the day’s final performances here:

Madwort’s Menagerie at the Vortex

I’m very excited to be debuting my latest project at the Vortex on Sunday Aug 3rd as part of the new LUME at the Vortex season.

“After a momentary glimpse in a misfiring big band rehearsal, Tom Ward has been bugged by an overheard snippet of a weird quartet comprising bass clarinet, flute, trumpet and trombone. Transmogrifying some of his compositions for sax quartet, hybridising this with his free improv duo Ti/om and finally balancing woodwind, brass and strings with the addition of a cello, Tom is proud to present Madwort’s Menagerie. Featuring some incredible improvising musicians with a full spectrum of credits ranging from the London Improvisers Orchestra through Brass Mask, the Overground Collective, Quadraceratops and The Imaginary Delta to Sinfonia Cymru and the London Tango Orchestra.”

Tom Ward – bass clarinet, flute, composition
Julie Kjaer – flute, alto flute
Alex Bonney – trumpet
Magnus Dearness – trombone
Adam Spiers – cello
Tim Fairhall – double bass

Upcoming gigs Summer 2014

Sunday Aug 3rd – Madwort’s Menagerie @ The Vortex, Dalston

The first outing of a brand new line-up comprising flute, cornet, trombone, bass clarinet, cello & double bass! More details to follow…

Various events, May 2014

A varied month of music – a few gigs in the west country with the Philip Clouts quartet, an unexpected last-minute call to play bass clarinet in a rehearsal for the e17 large ensemble which turned out to be a video shoot(!), playing cuban songs with a voice/alto sax/congas trio, playing with Chris Dowding at John Hegley’s night at the Betsey Trotwood and going to see lots of gigs – the highlight of which was clearly Loose Tubes at Ronnie Scott’s, but Louis Moholo-Moholo at Cafe Oto wasn’t far behind!

Ti/om 2014 recordings

Some recordings of us playing at LUME & at home:

Ti/om mini-tour of Hackney, April 2014

Two lovely Ti/om gigs this week, we’re both looking forward to doing a studio recording of the duo in a couple of days time. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos and a soundcloud of the Lume gig:

Lovely first set by Ti/om @themadwort pic.twitter.com/ZK9Um1QmjN — LUME (@lumemusiclondon) April 24, 2014

Saxoctopus at The Vortex, March 2014

The Saxoctopus / Sax Squid was sounding great last night! Now feeling very inspired to write some music for the ensemble’s debut gig this winter… Featuring Sam Andreae, Mette Rasmussen, Rachel Musson, Colin Webster, Julie Kjaer, Dee Byrne, Cath Roberts and myself! Photo by @mike__sands

Ti/om Rehearsing Feb 2014

There hasn’t been much news on Ti/om recently, but we’ve been hard at work in the rehearsal room. We’re currently sounding something like this…

Upcoming gigs – Spring 2014

Sunday March 2nd – Madwort’s Mechanical Mindset @ Jazz at the Salisbury, 8:30pm

The Mechanical Mindset featuring Dave O’Brien will be hitting North London’s Salisbury Hotel on Green Lanes, alongside the Josef Stout Sextet.
8:30pm at The Salisbury Hotel‎, 1 Grand Parade, Green Lanes, London N4 1JX

Monday March 24th – Trio Riot featuring the Saxoctopus @ Vortex, 8:30pm

A new collaboration has its first outing at Trio Riot‘s Vortex gig. After Trio Riot’s set, they will be augmented by a further six saxophone players (including myself) for a total of eight saxophones. Chaos ensues.

Tuesday April 22nd – Ti/om @ Servant Jazz Quarters, Dalston

Ti/om will be playing at Dalston’s Servant Jazz Quarters as one of three Brockley-centric improvising duos. With the other duos Ripsaw Catfish (feat. Anton Hunter & Cath Roberts) & the duo of Colin Webster with Graham Dunning it promises to be a great night!